Rondi Charleston sings of 'personal and urgent' matters

Friday

Jul 22, 2011 at 12:01 AMJul 22, 2011 at 10:17 PM

After studying opera at Julliard, Charleston enrolled in New York University’s journalism school and eventually became an investigative reporter for Diane Sawyer. But even Sawyer saw that music was in her bones.

Wei-Huan Chen

Rondi Charleston wasn’t always a professional singer-songwriter, but music has been in her genes, quite literally, since before she was born.

“My father played Miles Davis for me while I was in utero,” says Charleston.

“He introduced me to Duke Ellington when I was 6. In addition to my father, brother and mother, who was a professional singer, my grandmother and her six sisters all sang.”

After studying opera at Julliard, Charleston enrolled in New York University’s journalism school and eventually became an investigative reporter for Diane Sawyer. But even Sawyer saw that music was in her bones.

“I don’t want to lose you,” the ABC “Primetime Live” host told Charleston after seeing one of her nighttime gigs in New York. “But I didn’t know you were so good. You could really be a singer.”

Charleston filed that thought away for a couple of years and continued reporting for ABC, eventually winning Emmy and Peabody awards for her contributions to various stories.

“I kept singing, though,” she says. “I couldn’t stop. I ended up studying jazz singing for a few years while I was at ABC.”

After working six years in television, Charleston finally returned to music. She said it felt like a homecoming.

“Now, I’m back to jazz, which was my first love, and songwriting, which is in my blood,” she says.

So it’s no surprise that her new album, “Who Knows Where the Time Goes,” tackles themes of family and lineage.

The poignant “Your Spirit Lingers,” for example, is based on a memoir written by her great-grandmother, Indiana.

Charleston’s imaginative prose and warm, precise vocals connect her to a woman she never met but admires deeply. Indiana was a “pioneer woman” who emigrated from Norway to the U.S. in the 1840s, traveled by covered wagon across the country and, eventually, settled in Oregon before passing away in 1933.

“Maybe she’s the poet you were always meant to be,” Charleston sings. “Your spirit lingers; it lives inside of me; this hunger, this yearning sails on…”

Indiana’s stories were kept inside a leather-bound book titled “Erindringer,” and Charleston studied it with the curiosity of an investigative reporter.

“Whether it’s songwriting or investigative reporting, the thing that intrigues me is this constant search for the truth,” says Charleston.

“Whether it’s something being covered up in an investigative story or some secret meaning inside of a song, it’s the excavation process that’s worthwhile and what I want to share with audiences.”

Diane Sawyer’s advice for Charleston, “Write like you talk and stick to the story,” holds true in many of Charleston’s originals.

“The Land of Galilee” is a fine example of Charleston’s musical storytelling. The story is built up expertly through both music and lyrics, documenting a family trip to Jerusalem and the extraordinary thing she saw there.

“Out in the world in a far off land, surrounded by layers of stone,” she sings. “Feel the heat of old battlegrounds where ancient kings once ruled.”

The scene is set. Musical composer and pianist Lynne Arriale meanders through minor chords while drummer Clarence Penn offers sparse cymbal crescendos. An enigmatic upward scale by the piano signals a turning point in the song. The listener wonders where the story will lead.

Charleston sings of quiet streets and grey skies in the city while the rhythm section begins to ramp up. She suddenly bends into the highest note in the song so far: “Down from heavens flowed in light, white powdered snow,” she sings.

Immediately after, an even higher, crisper note leaps out with the word “beauty.” It is what jazz musicians call the most colorful note in the scale, the brilliantly pitched “9th.”

As the snow fell, she saw Muslims and Jews playing together in the snow, united momentarily by this divine phenomenon. It is a musical peak fitting for the climax in Charleston’s story.

“It was a moment when you thought, perhaps peace is possible,” she says.

Unlike so many pop singer-songwriters today, Charleston never treads on tired subjects. While “Your Spirit Lingers” and “The Land of Galilee” concern broader issues of time and heritage, they are both inspired by personal experience.

“In Rainer Maria Rilke’s ‘Letters to a Young Poet,’ he says you must choose subject matters that are deeply personal and urgent,” says Charleston.

Rilke’s message rings true throughout Charleston’s original compositions. And considering her musical family background, she has her family to thank for that.

“We didn’t have a ton of money growing up,” says Charleston. “And the money we did have was always spent on piano lessons. Music is what my family values most in life.”